Solar Panel Canopy Charges and Protects Your EV

Photo: Hakan Gürsu

As last week’s Tesla/NYT saga showed that the major pain of owning an electric vehicle is finding a place to refuel when on the road. A Turkish designer has an aesthetically pleasing solution in the form of a new public parking system that nestles electric cars underneath a blanket of photovoltaic cells.

Industrial designer Hakan Gürsu calls his creation the V-Tent, a collapsible canopy that shields parked cars from weather while soaking in the sun’s rays to charge the vehicle and power nearby street lights (so, you know, you can find the chargers).

Gürsu’s design works like this: The driver pulls their EV underneath a set of vertically actuated metal arms. Once the driver is out of the car, the canopy unfolds to cover the car (check this quick video for a demo). When not occupied, the arms fold upwards, reeling in the flexible solar panels into a tidy bar.

The setup is also a designed as a way to reimagine parking meters. After setting how long they plan to park, drivers pay with a credit card and the charging begins. A red light on the column means it’s topping off the cells, while a green light indicates the battery is full. And naturally, drivers will be able check the status of the charge through a smartphone app.

Because the vehicle is covered, the design team says the V-tent will even prolong the life of automobiles by shielding them from the sun, and the panels contain small perforations between its layers to keep the whole structure from overheating. But for now, it’s just a concept.